Google Introduces Nexus One, Its Rival to the iPhone

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google stepped up its attack on the smartphone market on Tuesday, introducing a new touch-screen handset called Nexus One that is widely seen as a rival to Apple’s iPhone.

Google also said that it would sell the Nexus One, which it called a superphone, exclusively through a new online store. Google, which earns the vast majority of its revenue from advertising, said it was dipping its toes in the direct retailing business not to reap profits from the sale of phones but to broaden the availability of handsets running its Android software.

“There is an opportunity to make some margin on the unit sales, but that’s not the objective here,” Andy Rubin, a vice president of engineering in charge of the Android technology, said during a press conference at Google’s headquarters here. “Our primary business is advertising.”

Consumers will be able to buy the Nexus One for $529 unlocked or for $179 with a two-year calling plan from T-Mobile. Google said that the Nexus One would be available on Verizon Wireless in the United States and on Vodafone in Europe later this year. It said it hoped to add other devices and carriers to the direct-to-consumer program in the future.

Some analysts said they were impressed by the speed of the Nexus One and by some of its capabilities. Google has voice-enabled all text boxes in the device, so a user can, for example, compose an e-mail message by speaking into the phone rather than typing. But they expressed disappointment that Google had not done more to shake up the industry by, for example, subsidizing the phone through profits from advertising.

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The Nexus One phone will be available for $529 unlocked, or for $179 with a two-year calling plan from T-Mobile.Credit
Kim White/Bloomberg News

“It would have been nice to see them roll out something really unique,” said Danny Sullivan, the editor of SearchEngineLand and a longtime Google analyst. “It is more evolutionary than revolutionary.”

The Nexus One, which was built by HTC, a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, has a 3.7-inch screen and runs the latest version of Google’s Android operating system. At less than a half-inch thick and 4.6 ounces, it is slightly thinner and a tad lighter than the iPhone. It has a removable battery, a 5-megapixel camera with an LED flash and can shoot both still images and video.

Google executives called the Nexus One “exemplar” of what is possible with Android today. They said Google was pleased with the success of Android, which in little more than a year has grown from one device on one carrier to 20 devices with 59 carriers around the world. But they decided to work closely with HTC to design the best possible device based on its software.

The only person in the room who did not appear ready to concede that the Nexus One was the best Android device in the market was Sanjay Jha, the co-chief executive of Motorola, which recently introduced the Android-based Droid.

“I think the Nexus One is a good phone; I think the Droid is a good phone,” Mr. Jha said. But Mr. Jha appeared to embrace Google’s plan to market phones directly to consumers. “I see this potentially as an expansion of the marketplace,” he said.

Similarly, cellphone carriers appeared unperturbed by Google’s plan to sell unlocked phones directly to consumers. “We certainly welcome bringing more choices to the marketplace,” said John Taylor, a spokesman for Sprint. Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless, said his company was aware of Google’s plans for a store when it signed a broad cooperation agreement with Google.

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From left, Peter Chou, chief executive of HTC; Andy Rubin, vice president for engineering at Google; and Mario Queiroz, Google's vice president for product management, taking questions after the unveiling of the Nexus One. Google will offer the phone on a Web store, instead of relying solely on carriers to sell it.Credit
Robert Galbraith/Reuters

For now, the Nexus One phone works only on cellular networks using the G.S.M. standard, which in the United States is used by AT&T and T-Mobile. It can run on AT&T’s network if the unlocked-phone owner has an AT&T SIM card, but it will work only on the older and slower EDGE network, not the faster 3G network, Google said.

The Nexus One has a high-speed 1-gigahertz Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm, which keeps multiple applications running quickly. It has some 3-D display capabilities, and Google collaborated with Cooliris, a Silicon Valley start-up, to incorporate that company’s technology, which showcases photos along a scrolling wall of images. Google also introduced a version of Google Earth that runs on the Nexus One.

“It looks like a really cool phone,” said Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. “But it is not a game changer.”

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Peter Chou, the chief executive of HTC, refused to disclose sales forecasts for the Nexus One, but he said that the device “pushes the limits of what’s possible on a mobile phone today.”

While the Nexus One may be a rival to the iPhone, Google and Apple are approaching the cellphone market with very different strategies: Apple makes money by selling phones and Google makes money by selling ads. But there is little doubt that the two companies are on a collision course.

If the Nexus One or other devices sold through Google’s store succeed, they could eat into the appeal of the iPhone. Meanwhile Apple said Tuesday that it had acquired Quattro Wireless, a mobile advertising start-up, indicating that it has plans to attack Google’s core advertising business.

A version of this article appears in print on January 6, 2010, on Page B8 of the New York edition with the headline: A Long-Awaited Introduction Draws Some Polite Applause. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe